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Final Plummet: Why Films Fail in Act 3 by Sky Tallone
Although it stars Brad Pitt and begins well, 'World War Z', ends badly both metaphorically and dramatically. photo: courtesy M. Forster
AS I LEFT THE KABUKI AFTER WATCHING
my fifth or sixth film at the San Francisco International Film Festival in early May, I found myself pondering the same questions I often do towards the end of any film-watching spree.
Why do so many independent films have a great build-up through Acts One and Two and then plateau and eventually plummet in a random direction in Act Three?
"Act Two is the desert where stories die," as the saying goes, and, indeed, this is usually the hardest act to write. Despite the warning, a huge number of studio as well as independent films (though it seems to be particularly frequent in indies) tend to fail in Act Three.
When this happens, it often seems the writer exhausted all the stuff they were dying to say by the end of Act Two and just wanted to hurry and finish up so they could just be done with the story already—damn it!
A few of the most common problems I’ve noticed plaguing Act Threes are:
1. The Characters Have No Arc. The protagonist or supporting actors don’t show significant change in Act Three compared to Act One. They don’t seem to have learned anything. Examples: World War Z (2013), Spring Breakers (2012)
2. The Protagonist Fails to Do Anything to bring about the climax or resolution. Either the conflict is conveniently solved for them, Deus Ex Machina, so they don’t have to do anything, or events naturally lead them in a direction in which everything works out. Unfortunately, it does so without them having to make any real decisions or change in any significant manner. Examples: Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
3. It Just Gets Fuckin’ Weird. Suddenly there are strobe lights and a fast-paced montage with aliens or chanting children and really loud music. Throw in a few random flashbacks and an extreme wide aerial shot with a red filter and—boom—roll credits.
I’m shocked at the number of (especially indie) films I’ve been totally into throughout Acts One and Two, which get suddenly pseudo-epic, abstract or outright absurd in Act Three.
The filmmakers try to pack way more meaning than the entire film can support into its end. It's as if—now that they’ve gotten most of the story out of the way—they think they can milk it for every last drop of spiritual significance or surrealism.
In an attempt to have an edgy, deep or artsy ending—whether it fits the story or not, this is often where many independent films lose more mainstream audiences. Basically, Act Three tends to be where many indie filmmakers attempt to make their unique artistic mark, give it their special twist. and it’s just too far out there for most people to get. By Act Three it's a day late and dollar short to be that abstract or different. Examples: The Wicker Man (2006), The Double (2013)
The Coen Brother's 'Inside Llewyn Davis' seems to dribble to ending, although that might be the point. photo: courtesy Coen Brothers
4. Nothing Happens, or at least not nearly as much as we would like to see happen, given the set-up. The story kind of saunters off slowly into the distance, there’s virtually no climax and the protagonist doesn’t fight for what they believe in as hard as we wanted them to, if at all.
In some cases, there is a climax but it’s not nearly as powerful as any of the other possibilities could have been. Sometimes the film has an incredibly unique and creative concept, but in the final act, they don’t explore any of the creative possibilities their setup suggested.
Sometimes none of the things which were built up so finely in the first two acts are played out or paid off, resulting in horrible narrative disappointment. Examples: The Final Cut (2004), Broken Flowers (2005), This Must Be The Place (2011), The Master (2012)
5. The Solution Is All Wrong. Whatever the protagonist does to deal with the conflict and bring about resolution isn’t morally and/or logically sound. The story would have been so much more powerful if he/she had just made another choice, any other choice! Examples: Limitless (2011), Saw 3 (2010), The Incredibles (2004), Hop (2011)
6. The Damn Thing Keeps Going, sometimes with two, three or even four endings!! Although you thought it was gonna end twenty minutes ago, when all the main characters died, no! It’s still going!!
It's as if the filmmakers reach a logical ending point, then say to each other, “Nah, nah, keep it going, that'll show our artistic integrity. Throw thirty minutes of additional dialogue in there, then a few more scenes to show how happy they are after the trouble’s over. Yeah, that’s nice."Examples: Cast Away (2000), Source Code (2011)
7. Predictable. They've just revealed the big twist, and it was exactly what we all expected. Or worse, it turns out to be exactly what a character said would happen earlier in the film. Examples: The Happening (2008)
8. Too Much Information! They’ve created a complex and intricate web of story lines throughout Acts One and Two, and now they have to stuff in a series of long expositional dialogue scenes in order to explain it all in thirty minutes.
This is often the most disappointing one, because the rest of the film leading up to this point can be quite good. It’s complex, it’s unique, it’s mysterious and we’re dying to know just how this is all going to wrap up.
Then a wise mentor type character basically explains the whole thing to us in Act Three, and we often aren’t sure at first why we’re disappointed. I wonder how often it is the case that the Act Three was originally much better, but somebody rewrote it to be shorter and screwed it all up. Examples: Psycho (1960)
9. A Cop-Out. In the end, it all gets wrapped up in one big convenient cliche, a fault more commonly seen in big budget, Hollywood films.
They have a unique story with complex characters and the film seems like it’s going to be different. Then Act Three turns into a giant action sequence with car chases and explosions, or the virgin defeats the serial killer, or the princess marries the wealthy handsome prince and they live happily ever after, or aliens did it! Examples: Inception (2010), Wreck-It Ralph (2012), The Descent (U.S. Version, 2005), The Forgotten (2004), Saving Private Ryan (1998), I Am Legend (2007)
10. A Downward or Upward Spiral. Either things just continue to get worse and worse for the protagonist until it finally hits rock bottom right before the credits roll, or things continue to get better and better for the protagonist throughout the entire film, perhaps leading up to the resolution of a minor conflict at the climax.
Either way, a consistently pessimistic or optimistic ending isn’t always the way to go, and often comes off as expositional or preachy, as if trying to force the audience to understand, “If you do this, good things happen!” or “If you do this, only bad things can happen!” In any case, both up and downs are usually necessary, especially in Act Three. Examples: Million Dollar Baby (2004), Alien: Resurrection (1997), Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Chef (2014)
11. It Was All a Dream! Or, they were both one person with a split personality! Something is revealed in the end which makes the previous hour of the film less significant. It leaves you wondering why anything that “happened” in the film mattered at all.
"The Wizard of Oz", "Fight Club" and "Identity" can get away with it but not many others, especially now that it’s been so overdone.
Examples: Boxing Helena (1993), Swimming Pool (2003), Hide and Seek (2005), Haute Tension (2003)
12. A Convenient and Happy Solution, another ending we see more from mainstream Hollywood films. No matter how bad things get, the scriptwriter can always find a way to have everyone survive and be happy together at the end.
Here the entire Act Three ends up being a series of convenient coincidences which allow for everything to turn out alright. Happy endings are fine, and this can almost be forgiven in some comedies; but when the conflict has gotten so great that there’s no logical way the characters could quickly and/or completely bounce back from it, the happy ending then seems forced. Examples: War of the Worlds (2005), Signs (2002), John Q (2002), Eagle Eye (2008), Prisoners (2013)
Leave a comment if you disagree or you have any other good examples of films that fit the above descriptions—together we can crack the Act Three conundrum!
Sky Tallone is a writer, director, filmmaker and blogger, and can be reached . Posted on Jun 23, 2014 - 05:50 PM